Little Fires Everywhere

By Celeste Ng

Description

Soon to be a Hulu limited series, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington

eBook includes special materials for book clubs: a Q&A with Celeste Ng and John Green, a letter from Celeste Ng, and book club discussion questions.

Named a Best Book of the Year by: People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many more!

“To say I love this book is an understatement. It’s a deep psychological mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. It moved me to tears.” - Reese Witherspoon

From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

Perfect for book clubs! Visit celesteng.com for discussion guides and more.

Reviews

Don’t waste your time.

1

By gracievmcg

Each development is more unrealistic than the last. This book does not contain a single likeable character. I am incredulous at the acclaim that this book has received. It was a waste of my time and my money.

So descriptive and boring!!

1

By Wordgamefreak

I had to force myself to read this, because I had spent the money to read it I felt obligated and that’s the only reason why. It was unnecessarily descriptive and incredibly boring.

Flat and Contrived

2

By Genkiemi

I’m 75% of the way through this book and really wanted to enjoy it, but it’s time to throw in the towel. A tiring series of impossible coincidences only barely resembling real life, meandering it’s way across 600 pages (I hung on for as long as I can, but the author seems to often confuse detail for depth). The characters are as one dimensional as it gets—of COURSE the artistic rebel has Parents Who Don’t Approve and a tragic past and is identified as a genius her first day at one of the top art programs in the country, of COURSE things play out in bizarre ways that just happen to perfectly serve the narrative purpose (e.g. the locks incident at the school), of COURSE the main plot happens to echo the lessons were meant to learn from the mains characters past and various side plots. The book doesn’t so much reveal truths about motherhood as force feed them into your mouth saying “see??”.
All not to mention the surprising inelegant treatment of race in an entirely contrived trial where one side is so completely devoid of sympathy (or any legal precedence for that matter) that the characters’ anguished responses are only comical at this point. But more than that, one of the central conceits of the book makes implications about minority babies bring raised by a white families that I find downright regressive as an asian American, and I can’t even imagine how it would come off to an actual adoptee. And I’m supposed to just blindly accept that as a good point?
What I’m saying is, I don’t think I’ll finish this book.

Horrible

1

By Daïna

Such a gigantic let down... 600 pages of over descriptions and no end.

Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

3

By Jean bridge

Not up to her first novel, but very good, easy to read. A bit formulaic. Not enough exposure of the characters’ interiority for this reader.

People need to read good books

2

By Food at

Couldn’t get through this, it became very boring. Written at a high school level. Sad that I payed for it.

Hey

3

By shashaglam

Hey i was a great time

Writer was unable to leave her own biases

2

By EReaderlove3

She obviously hasn’t been back to her hometown in a while, and she didn’t as much explore motherhood as she did infuse her own values in a non self-aware manner.

Slow and tough to get into

2

By Mom trying to read

The book took a long time to develop the story. I was at the very end and kind of became interested.